Traditionally, most fondues would be made of rich creamy cheese, but if you follow a strict paleo diet you won’t be allowed to eat this. However, there is a dish called fondue bourguignonne which consists of dipping ingredients like vegetables or meat into a communal pot of hot broth or oil, whatever one you’d prefer.
We’ve adapted this popular fresh broth dish to create a more paleo friendly one.
Using broth is a paleo-friendly fondue alternative that the whole family can enjoy at the same time. You can also switch up the recipe to make variations suitable for AIP and Whole30.
If you’re interested in making this recipe for your own family then keep on reading to find out exactly how to make it.
The Perfect Family Meal Idea
If you’re struggling to get everyone to sit around one table in the evening and enjoy a meal together, then you should try giving this recipe a try. Not only is it interactive to eat, as you have to spend time whilst your food cooks in the broth, but you can also get the whole family involved when you’re prepping the ingredients to cook.
You can have one person making up the broth and then the rest of the family chopping different types of vegetables or the meats ready for the fondue.
We always get the youngest to lay the table with the placemats and cutlery as they’re too little to do any chopping with a knife.
This recipe takes time and care and it’ll prevent your kids from shoveling down their food so they can return to their phones or their rooms, or sitting there impatiently huffing until you excuse them from the table.
It’s also the perfect meal to make when you’ve got picky eaters in the family who turn their noses up at half the meals you put down in front of them. You can choose a whole range of ingredients to dip into the fondue, which will suit a variety of palettes and dietary needs. From carrots to steak, to shrimp to butternut squash.
You can even serve up a selection of sauces to dip your fondue ingredients into after they’ve cooked.
As this recipe takes a little longer to prepare and make, we do mostly leave it to Friday evenings or weekends. This way, we can all chat about our weeks and our plans for the following week whilst our food cooks in the fondue, and as we everyone will need to wait at least 5 minutes for each ingredient on the skewer to cook through in the broth.
Got guests coming round for dinner and you don’t have the energy to create a fancy meal? Even better! This recipe was made for socializing over with friends, so the more people the merrier!
How To Make This Paleo Broth Fondue
To make a paleo broth from scratch, you can follow this homemade recipe that we use for making paleo chicken broth. You can also choose to make veggie or beef broth if that’s more to your tastes or dietary needs.
You’ll need a big saucepan to be able to hold and cook all your ingredients in.
Ingredients you’ll need to make the broth:
3-4lb whole organic chicken
3-4 peeled and chopped carrots
2 quartered turnips
2 celery stalks cut in half
2 quartered onions
1 head of garlic cut in half
1 teaspoon of black pepper
Salt
2 bay leaves
2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme
Chopped fresh parsley
Put all of your ingredients into your saucepan and then add around 12 cups of water (or enough to cover the chicken) and then cover it up with a lid and bring it to a boil.
Reduce the heat and then simmer for 2-4 hours depending on what heat you have it on and also how big your chicken is.
Once the chicken is cooked and the water is a deep yellow color then remove the chicken from the broth and let it cool down (you can use this for your fondue later if you’d like).
Then strain your vegetables and your herbs and use the broth immediately or keep it in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to 1 week.
On our recipe card at the bottom of this article, we’ve included the cheat method to making the broth, so if you do want to make it from scratch you’ll need to return to this part of the page.
Kettle and Fire Mushroom and Chicken Bone Broth
Don’t worry there is an easier way around making this delicious recipe and that’s the cheat way – by using a store-bought bone broth. All you’ll have to do is pour it into the fondue pot and wait for it to heat up. So simple and it’ll save you about 5 hours of preparation time.
Making it from scratch or using a store bone broth will still yield great results and will taste amazing either way you decide to go. One is just easier than the other.
You could even lie to your dinner guests and tell them you made the broth yourself even when you just poured the bone broth into the fondue pot and placed it on the dinner table.
The mushroom and chicken bone broth from Kettle and Fire are one of our favorites, it’s packed with flavor, rich in amino acids and collagen, and is gluten-free, whole30 approved, and also paleo-friendly.
You can pick this broth up from Walmart, Whole Foods, or Amazon. If you like something with a richer and deeper flavor, then try the beef bone broth from the Kettle and Fire brand, it’s also paleo-friendly.
What Is The Best Fondue Pot To Use For This Recipe?
You can use a flame-burning fondue pot or an electric one, it’s completely up to you. Whatever works best for your family. If you’ve got young kids that’ll be too tempted by the flame then opt for an electric one, however, if you’ve also got kids that love to run around the dinner table and could trip over the cord for the electric one, then maybe go for the flame burning pot.
If you don’t have either then you could just do this recipe over the stove, but that defeats the purpose of making this dish as it’s supposed to be interactive and encourage conversation and quality time with the family.
Making This Recipe AIP-friendly
Unfortunately, the Kettle and Fire bone broths are non-compliant for the AIP diet, you’ll either need to buy broth that is suited for Paleo Autoimmune Protocol or choose to make it yourself using the recipe we’ve recommended above.
We have recommended white wine in this recipe to bring more flavor to the broth and it also tastes amazing with all the dipping ingredients. However, alcohol is also not compliant with the AIP diet so you may want to give this one a miss to stay on the safe side. Whilst the alcohol will be cooking off for a while on the heat in the fondue pot, there’s no real way of telling if it’s been properly cooked off before you eat it.
What Are The Best Ingredients to Dip Into Your Broth Fondue?
We find having an array of meats, fish, and vegetables is the best for dipping into this broth fondue. You don’t want just one kind of dipping choice as it’ll get a bit boring – no one wants just cauliflower for their entire dinner, right?
Choose a meat protein source like lean steak, diced chicken breasts, shrimp, diced pork chops, or even some cut-up white fish if you’re a pescetarian.
As for vegetables, you can be as creative as you’d like, we love using crunchy veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, and parsnips because they don’t go overly soggy when you leave them to cook in the broth fondue. However, feel free to use anything like mushrooms if they’re your favorite – you just won’t have to cook them for long.
Any meats or fish that you use for this fondue, just make sure that they’re thinly sliced or smaller in size so that they’ll cook quickly in the broth fondue.
You may want to check the inside of your meats before you and any kids eat them to make sure they’re cooked through.
Paleo Broth Fondue Recipe Card
Yields: 4 servings Prep Time: 20 mins Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
2 cartons of store-bought bone broth or 4 cups of regular meat/veggie broth
1 cup of white wine (any will do)
3 green onions sliced
3 minced garlic cloves
Meats, veggies, and sauces from the list below
Meat Ideas:
Steak
Chicken breasts
Pork chops
Shrimp
White fish
Veggie Ideas:
Butternut squash
Broccoli
Parsnips
Yellow squash
Cauliflower
Mushrooms
Best Sauces For Dipping:
Guac
Homemade chili and lime mayo
Homemade curry mayo
Sweet chili sauce
Homemade avo mayo
Creamy dairy-free garlic sauce
Cocktail sauce
Instructions:
Before you begin heating your broth fondue, cut up all your dipping ingredients on a chopping board until they’re in bite-size pieces
Make sure you arrange your raw meat on one plate and then you’re fresh vegetables on a different plate
Make up the sauces you want and pour them into dipping bowls or ramekins
Add your broth to a saucepan on the stove or to your fondue pot on the dinner table
Then add in your minced garlic, green onions, and white wine and heat until it starts to boil
Once it begins boiling, turn the heat down so it simmers
Lay the table, make sure there are plates as well as skewers and serving spoons available
Call everyone down for dinner so they can all help themselves to the ingredients they want
Harder ingredients like butternut squash or potatoes (not AIP friendly though) will need to go in the broth first as these will take around 15 minutes to cook through
Then after 10 minutes, put your vegetables into the broth or arrange them onto the skewers and dip them in, leaving them to cook for 5 minutes
If there’s enough room, place your meat on your skewers and then leave them in the broth to cook for 5 minutes
Use a slotted spoon to fish the ingredients out of the broth and serve on a plate but you can eat your other ingredients directly off your skewer (you may want to leave it cooldown)
